Tonight, the Boston Celtics will host the Atlanta Hawks to open up the Emirates NBA Cup group stage. This will be the second season of the competition, so I’m sure there’s plenty of you out there who have either forgotten or never really understood the rules.
So, here’s what you need to know:
The structure
The NBA Cup is split into two stages: group play and an eight-team knockout stage. Each conference is split into three groups of five teams, which were drawn back in the summer. Group play consists of four games, one against each team in the respective pool. The winner of each group will advance to the knockout rounds, along with one wildcard (the non-group winner with the best record/point differential).
If two teams are tied for the best record in their group, then the tie-breaker goes to the head-to-head winner, and then point differential if there are more than two teams involved (which will likely happen for the wildcard).
Knockout quarterfinal games will be hosted by the two group-winners in each conference with the best record. From that point on, the semifinals and finals will be played in Las Vegas at the TMobile Arena.
All NBA Cup games, except the final, will count towards each team’s 82-game schedule. Once the group results are final, teams that do not advance to the knockout stage will have an additional two games scheduled for them.
The Celtics’ path
Boston is in the Eastern Conference’s Group C along with Atlanta, the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Washington Wizards.
